The ancient Roman festival of Mater Matuta- The goddess Mother of the Dawn.

1174- Crusader king of Jerusalem Amalric IV dies, he is succeeded by his son Baldwin IV the "Leper King of Jerusalem". That this disease afflicted Baldwin did not stop him from marrying (unconsummated) and fighting battles -no one would get close enough to fight with him. Ed Norton played him in the Ridley Scott film Kingdom of Heaven.

1258-The "Mad Parliament"- In English history before Parliament sat on a regular basis, an eventful parliament was given a nickname:" The Rump, the Hochtide, etc." In this Parliament the barons of England fed up with King Henry III's arbitrary and spendthrift rule force him to submit his power to veto of a council of peers. These so-called "Provisions of Oxford" are the next great step after Magna Charter to creating a representative democratic government. But because historical chronicles are written at the King’s pleasure, this Parliament is known by the sobriquet Mad.

1644 -A Florentine scientist described the invention of a barometer.

1663- THE FOUR DAYS BATTLE- in the Channel the British Navy of 80 ships tangled with the Dutch Navy of 100 ships to see who would be masters of the seas. After amazing slaughter, Dutch Admiral De Ruyter claimed victory. He had brooms tied to his mainmasts symbolizing he intended to sweep the English from the seas, but by August England was back with another fleet. De Ruyter was a naval genius who bedeviled the British for years. A French admirer said, "De Ruyter had the plain simplicity of a Biblical patriarch. Just four days after fighting this great sea battle, he was back home sweeping his own floor, and feeding his chickens."

1685- MONMOUTH'S REBELLION- The Duke of Monmouth, the illegitimate son of English King Charles II felt he should be king instead of his prissy Roman Catholic Uncle King James II. Being illegitimate was to him a mere technicality. This day The Duke of Monmouth landed in the U.K. and raised the banner of revolt. He got some of Oliver Cromwell’s old roundheads to join him but they were soon crushed by the regular army. Monmouth was executed and many of his men shipped off to be slaves on the sugar plantations of Bermuda and the Bahamas by the infamous Judge Jeffries during the Bloody Assizes. The novel Captain Blood is about one such slave-survivor of Monmouth’s Rebellion.

1727- Coronation of King George II of England. Not much is remembered about this ceremony but that the English public began to see that Mr. Georg Fredrich Handel fellow could really write some good music! This included Zadok the Priest, now customarily played at all coronations.

1742 - Benjamin Franklin invents his iron Franklin stove.

1775- 33 year old Virginia planter Thomas Jefferson leaves Monticello to ride to Philadelphia where the representatives of all the colonies were gathering to decide how to respond to the violence lately broken out between colonists and British troops around Boston.

1790- In Hawaii this is King Kamehameha day in honor of the king who united all the Hawaiian Islands under one rule.

1809- The Pope excommunicated Napoleon. "Good," he said, "This will bring me even more followers."

1878- At a small track at the Palo Alto Stock Farm, English photographer Edweard Muybridge did the first of his Animal Motion Studies. He lined up 25 cameras and filmed California Governor Leyland Stanford’s favorite mare Sallie Gardner at a full gallop. He invited the press, so none could accuse him of doctoring the photos later. They proved that when a horse was in full gallop, all four hooves leave the ground.

1913- Turkish Grand Vizier Shevket Pasha was assassinated by revolutionaries. The Young Turk officers had the conspirators rounded up and hanged.

1927- Charles Lindbergh Day. After his historic flight, the young aviator was welcomed home to America by President Coolidge and huge throngs of well-wishers at Washington’s Navy Yard. Battleships boomed, bands blared and two dirigibles floated overhead. The radio announcer covering the event did one of the very first coast-to-coast broadcasts. He reached thirty million people.

1928 - Alfred Hitchcock's 1st film, "The Case Of Jonathan Drew," is released

1934- the first Mandrake the Magician comic strip.

1936- Shy, quiet, 30 year old Texas writer Robert E. Howard had created the powerful warriors Conan the Barbarian, Kull and single handedly defined the genre we now call Sword & Sorcery. This day after he learned his mother was dying and would never regain consciousness, he went into his garage and blew his brains out. Some say he had an Oedipal fixation, others that he always intended to end his life and was waiting to spare his mother the pain. On his typewriter he left a short message: "All fled, all done, so lift me upon the pyre. The feast is over and let the lamps expire."

1939 – President Franklin Roosevelt hosted King George VI and Queen Elizabeth at the White House. There the rulers of the British Empire ate Hot Dogs for the first time. Whether they in turn gave FDR some Marmite is an open question.

1941- Bir Hakim surrendered. Free French & Foreign Legion forces under Col. Koenig held out in an epic siege against Rommels’ Afrika Corps. After weeks of terrible bombing today they surrendered, buying critical time for the British Eighth Army.

1944- The Allied forces who landed at D-Day at five separate beaches and several drop zones link up their forces into one continuous front.

1948- Col. Eddie Marcus was a career US Army officer who spent World War II on General Eisenhower’s staff planning the major campaigns in Europe. Eddie Marcus was also a Jew. When the new state of Israel needed military experience, Marcus volunteered and was made the commanding General of the Jerusalem Front. He was given the name Mickey Stone as a code name. After furious fighting against Jordanian, Syrian and Iraqi forces, the UN ceasefire went into effect.
This night when Eddie Marcus stepped out of his tent during a curfew to relieve himself, he was accidentally shot by a young Israeli sentry. The boy only spoke Hebrew, and Marcus only spoke English. He was also wrapped in his bedsheet, and the boy thought it was Arab dress. Eddie Marcus’ body was flown back to America and interred at West Point. The incident was made into a film with Kirk Douglas called "Cast a Giant Shadow."

1955- The deadliest day at Le Mans. During this running of the famous 24 hour car race a Mercedes crashed into an Austin Healy at high speed and the cars disintegrated, spewing flaming metal debris into the crowd of spectators. 85 died and 100 more were hurt.

1959 – The US Postmaster General banned D H Lawrence's novel Lady Chatterley's Lover as pornography. He was overruled by US Court of Appeals in March 1960.

1963- Alabama Governor George Wallace stood in the schoolhouse door and refused to allow two black students to integrate Alabama University. He eventually stood aside before federal troops but his stand made him a national figure. Ironically Wallace was originally a liberal judge but after being defeated for Governor in 1958 changed his tone to conservative racism.

1964 - Chicago police break up a Rolling Stones press conference.

1964 - Manfred Mann recorded Do Wah Diddy Diddy.

1966 - "Paint It, Black" by The Rolling Stones peaks at #1

1966 - Janis Joplin played her 1st gig in San Francisco.

1968- After the carnage of the Tet Offensive and the Battle of Que Sanh, General William Westmoreland stepped down as commander of all US forces in Vietnam. Unlike Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, General Westmoreland remained unrepentant for the rest of his life. He blamed his failures in Vietnam on the media, hippies and the racial mixture of his army.

1972- THE MOST PROFITABLE FILM IN HISTORY. The film Deep Throat premiered. The first full length blockbuster porn film. The film was shot in just three days, by an ex-hairdresser turned director. It cost $22,500 to make and grossed $600 million. Most of that money disappeared into the coffers of the Mafia. It became a counterculture cause celebre. Jacky Kennedy saw it. Frank Sinatra screened a print for Vice President Spiro Agnew. Star Linda Lovelace later disavowed her career and claimed she did the sex scenes under duress from her husband Chuck Trainor. She died in a car accident in the 1982. Today the term Linda Syndrome denotes former porn actresses who deny their past.

1977 - Main Street Electrical Parade premiered at Disneyland.

1979- John Wayne died after a long struggle with cancer. Many believed his condition began as a result of filming the movie "The Conqueror" near the Nevada Atomic Test site. Half the crew of that film including all the stars and director died of cancer. When Wayne made a final appearance at the Academy Awards two months earlier he had purchased a small size tuxedo to hide his emaciated frame, but he was still too thin even then so he filled it out by wearing a scuba wetsuit underneath. He was 73.

1984- In the freewheeling economy of the 1980’s tycoons conducted hostile takeovers of companies by buying a majority of their stock on margin. When Wall Street corporate raider Saul Steinberg announced he intended to target the ailing Walt Disney Company for takeover CEO Ron Miller paid him $23 million just to make him go away. The Disney shareholders are outraged at this payment of "greenmail’ and demanded Miller’s resignation, which some say was exactly as Roy Disney had planned.

1987- Margaret Thatcher was re-elected to a third term as Britain’s Prime Minister.

1987- Britain noted the first outbreak of Mad Cow Disease.

1993 –Steven Spielberg’s "Jurassic Park" opened. The film set a box office record of $931 million. It was begun with modelers and puppeteers about to do the dinosaurs with clay and beeswax. But after seeing tests using the new 3D CGI –computer graphic imaging software, Steven ordered all of ILM to do it digitally. Jurassic Park clinched the digital takeover of Hollywood and set the standard for future special effects.

Answer: Admiral Lord Nelson won the great naval battle of Trafalgar, but was fatally wounded. As he lay below dying, when his flagship Capt. Hardy said “ The day is ours.” Nelson replied “ Kiss me Hardy”, then died.